How do I find out about concerts? How do I get more details about something I heard over the air? How do I submit events to WORT’s Music Calendars? Who do I contact with changes or cancellations?

WORT’s Music Calendars are a great resource to find out about concerts in all genres and places. Usually you’ll find details in the online listing or links to get more information. There’s a link to to submit your event at the top of the calendar page. You can also submit events, changes and cancellations to calendar@wortfm.org.

Contact Information

Music Director: Sybil Augustine – musicdirector@wortfm.org (for music submissions, charts and tracking, promotional exchanges for music events and following up on volunteer applications or other requests. Please include specifics in your subject line, such as “Hiphop Music Submission” etc, )

How do I get my music played on WORT?

We accept submissions in most genres and styles of music, focusing on noncommercial, out-of-the-mainstream, independent releases (check out our playlists and music charts for more information.) It may take up to a few weeks for us to review and process your submission so we appreciate your patience, and feel free to contact us to follow up. Please send your music, indicating any tracks with language that needs to be aired after 10 pm and including a one-sheet description and any biographical and tour information, to WORT Music Director, 118 S. Bedford St, Madison, WI 53703 and/or to musicdirector@wortfm.org.

We do accept digital files on .wav or mp3, but currently we still prefer CDs to digital submissions because it’s the quickest way to get it into the hands of our programmers and onto the airwaves, though we have a growing digital library. Digital submissions should be .wav or other lossless files, or high quality mp3s [128-320 kbps.]

You can follow up or “track” your submissions by email, or call 608-256-2001 on Wednesdays between 1-4 pm CST to ask if we received it, has it been reviewed, has it been added to our library, and what kind of airplay it’s getting—e.g. light, medium, heavy or charting. Thanks and we look forward to hearing your music!

WORT Music Playlists

What was that song I heard? Who was the artist, what is the album title, where can I get it? Where can I find the entire playlist for a show?

Click on the Playlists button to bring up a calendar where you can choose any date to find the playlists for that day. If you can’t find the right playlist or the song you’re looking for, your best bet is to call the station the next time that program’s on and ask the host yourself. If that’s not possible we may be able to help you, but please have as much information as possible at hand when you contact us, such as: approximate day and time the music was played, what type or genre of music it was, who hosted the show and any other information you remember about the selection and we’ll do our best to track it down.

Once you figure it out, there’s a “Buy It!” link next to each track in online playlists that leads you to a place where you can buy songs and albums, and by doing it that way a small portion of each purchase goes to support WORT.

The Hidden FM Chip on Your Android

If you have an Android cellphone or mobile device, there’s a good chance you can use it to listen to live FM radio! That might not seem like news for someone who streams radio stations, but what we’re talking about here is actually listening to FM radio over the FM spectrum because there might be an FM chip in your cellphone.

A modern cellphone contains five to six radio chips:

Cellular

Wi-Fi

Bluetooth

Near Field Communications (used, for example, for paying at a store pinpad)

GPS

And, just maybe, an FM radio.

But the question remains: Why use the FM chip when it’s already so easy to stream your favorite station … such as WORT? Here’s why:

Using the FM radio means that you aren’t incurring any data charges to your cellular plan. (You can have Wi-Fi and mobile data turned off completely and you’ll still receive radio signals.)

The FM radio consumes far less power than the cellular or Wi-Fi radios, so you can listen while in power-saving mode.

The quality of the signal is better because it isn’t compressed.

You can listen anonymously to the radio without stations and third-parties knowing your IP address and location.

Streaming apps might not include every local station, especially community-based low power stations such as WVMO-LP 98.7, WMUU-LP 102.9, WIDE-LP 99.1, WWMV-LP 95.5 and WLSP-LP 103.5.

When the internet goes down, so does the streaming.

When cellular coverage is congested or unavailable, the FM radio can provide life-saving information from local radio stations, as was the case recently in Northern California.

With net neutrality repealed, ISPs can put streaming radio into the “slow lane” of the information superhighway.

How to Do It Now
Provided that you have an Android device with an FM chip, you can simply download a free application called NextRadio. The application will detect if there’s an FM chip in your telephone, activate it and let you tune in to local stations. If it doesn’t find an FM chip, then it will stream stations for you. The status is shown on the NextRadio home screen so you always know whether you’re tuned into broadcasts or streams. Your earphones act as an antenna, but remember you must be within broadcast range to listen to a station via the FM chip, just like with any portable or car radio. The app’s website has a comprehensive list of cellphones with the FM chip and wireless carriers that permit the chip to work. NextRadio has also organized a group (http://freeradioonmyphone.org/) and are joined by NPR and American Public Media to advocate for activating the FM chip in cellphones that have them deactivated.

For the moment, if you have a newer Apple iPhone, you’re out of luck…but you can always contact your carrier and the manufacturer to request that they resume installing and activating the FM chips.